Happy Father's Day
by Gypsy Dancing Girl
Summary: Father's Day just happened to fall on the worst day of the Acid Tokyo arc, but only Sakura knows that. Kurogane and Fay are at odds with their parenting styles, and Sakura mourns the end of her family. Spoilers for anything past Acid Tokyo.


**Title: Happy Father's Day**

**Author: Gypsy Dancing Girl**

**Fandom: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles**

**Pairings: Clone!Syaoran/Clone!Sakura**

**Characters: Kurogane, Fay, Clone!Syaoran, Real!Syaoran, Clone!Sakura, Mokona**

**Genres: Family, Friendship, Angst, Hurt/Comfort**

**Rating: T**

**Warnings: Spoilers for chapters 120-180-ish, swearing on Kurogane's part, violence**

**Author's Notes: I've been working on this for awhile, and the first two parts were intentional, but I realized that Father's Day was coming up and added the third. So you have both Fay and Kurogane's views on fatherhood and lots of angst. Sorry that it's sort of dark for a Father's Day fic. Enjoy.**

Fay tended to each of Sakura's injuries himself, pouring all of his newfound energy into caring for the young princess who was falling asleep in his arms as he worked. He talked steadily: first about how brave she had been and how proud he was of her; then as she drifted off, how disappointed he was that she had put herself in danger like that and how frightened he had been when he realized she was out there all alone; and then once she was truly asleep, how angry he was with her for her recklessness.

Once finished, Fay held her for a long moment before putting her to bed and tucking her in securely. Mokona bounced onto the bed and nestled down in the crook of Sakura's neck and Fay gave him a gentle pat.

"Is any of it permanent?"

Fay spun and with one smooth movement, seized Kurogane's collar and dragged the larger man out of the room. Carefully and quietly, he shut the door to the room before flinging Kurogane against the opposite wall. Advancing slowly but steadily, Fay seethed with anger. Then Kurogane made a critical mistake in attempting to grab his shoulders, whether to calm him or restrain him, it didn't matter to Fay. The enraged vampire pushed the hands aside as if they were paper, and lifted Kurogane by the throat.

"If you ever encourage one of my children to endanger themselves again, I will _destroy_ you!" Fay shouted.

Kurogane hit a pressure point with more force than necessary and hit the floor in a crouch. "Don't you get tired of pretending?"

Fay ignored the already-healing injury and spun away from the ninja. "_I'm not pretending_."

"You've lied to yourself and to them for so long that you truly believe it," Kurogane declared, grabbing Fay's shoulder to spin him back around. "Fine, I won't stand in your way . . . but remember that they're just as important to me as they are to you."

Fay slapped him as hard as he could, so hard that his hand ached even more than his healing wrist. "_Liar!_ What kind of father are you? You sent Sakura-chan out alone! If you cared about her at all, how could you let her get hurt? It was your watch!"

"So you had better stop trying to die now . . . if you don't trust me to watch them anymore," Kurogane looked back at him, with a steely gaze. "We can play this game all night, but you will lose. If you cared about those kids so much, you'd stick around to take care of them." Kurogane was a pro at manipulation; he was successfully manipulating _Fay_!

"Is that why you let Sakura-chan go? To teach _me_ a lesson? To make me drink blood like a _monster_ and _live_ when I wanted to _die_? What kind of person are you to use a _child_ to get even with another adult?"

"I let her make a decision! She's old enough and competent enough to do so! The hard thing to do is to wait, and we've made the princess do it alone often enough in the past. Parents can't shield their children from everything forever!"

"I can try!"

Kurogane went still. Then he reached out and opened the door. "Then you'll want to start with hiding your fear of Syaoran. I saw you flinch earlier, and if you can't stand being around the original, then how will you cope when we get back the one who took your eye?" Because they would get him back. Kurogane would make sure of it.

Fay crouched against the far wall of the hallway, doubling over to hide himself. Kurogane left him there and went in to the room to care for the children. Fay was thankful for that. Kurogane had thrown his failure back into his face, and Fay wept bitterly once the door closed behind the ninja.

Why couldn't he have succeeded? Half a heart was sufficient to care for others as Syaoran-kun had proved throughout their journey up until now. Why couldn't the boys have shared the heart infinitely? Fay would have taken in the original Syaoran as one of his 'children' without a second thought so long as Fai had all of them with him. Even if they looked like twins and brought back bad memories, Fay was certain that it wouldn't be as hard as this.

Fay had poured all of his magic and energy into saving Syaoran-kun. Even without his restraining tattoo, he meant to protect the boy even if it brought about his own downfall. Fay thought he could trust Kurogane then. But now, Fay had lost his son . . . and very nearly lost his daughter. Fay could never trust Kurogane again. And there was a stranger in Syaoran-kun's place. It was beyond what Fay could bear.

* * *

Kurogane ignored the sounds beyond the door. The children wouldn't be able to hear them even if they did wake up. Even now the mage was hiding his feelings. Kurogane sat on the floor beside the bed to watch the princess sleep. After a few long moments-checking to make sure that the boy on the makeshift futon of cloaks in the corner was truly asleep-Kurogane gently rested one hand on Sakura's head, running his fingers through the tangles of hair that needed to be washed . . . and probably wouldn't be until after they had left this world. It didn't matter to Kurogane, and he straightened it slowly, methodically in the way he sometimes soothed a younger Tomoyo from nightmares when he was on duty.

"It's not alright to have two princesses," he murmured quietly. "But I can have more than one important person."

He gently traced the bandaged cheek. Sakura had scared him half to death, limping back and collapsing like that. Every injury uncovered as the mage had worked earlier, made Kurogane itch to take up his sword and slaughter as many of the mutants as he had time for before they left this world. But life hurts. He knew that he couldn't protect the kids from it. The important thing was to fix what went wrong afterwards.

He hated to ever admit that the mage wasn't lying. Unfortunately for Kurogane, he couldn't argue with the assertion that they had become far too attached to the children. Kurogane was as hopelessly gone as Fay.

It didn't change anything. He had a promise to keep. But now it was going to hurt like hell to keep it. Kurogane stood hastily, resting his hand on Sakura's head once more. He mussed the boy's hair as he passed, rummaged briefly in their belongings, and fetched his sake and katana. He had a rather stubborn vampire to feed.

Kurogane made sure to close the door tightly behind him. He did not doubt that Fay would be vocal bout not feeding.

* * *

Sakura rolled out of bed as soon as the door closed behind Kurogane-san. She had a lot of practice feigning sleep at home. Toya used to check on her so _early_ that she had plenty of time to herself after he left. The feather she had regained in LeCourt gave her back the skill. Sakura rummaged in their belongings just as Kurogane-san had done moments before. She found the two tiny gift-wrapped boxes easily. Syaoran-kun had offered to hide them, but Sakura had hidden them in her pack instead . . . the only place Kurogane-san and Fay-san would never look into . . . no matter what. She had snuck away with Syaoran-kun early on in LeCourt country to buy the two watches. It had been very important to both of them, knowing the day that was coming and having someone to buy something for on that day. It was the first in many years that the two orphans had father-figures to celebrate Father's Day with.

They had chosen carefully, wanting the time pieces to survive the miscellaneous hurdles that accompanied their journey, but still be pleasant to the eye. It was supposed to be a surprise. They hadn't even told Mokona so that the little creature wouldn't give it away accidentally.

Sakura knew exactly how everyone would have reacted too! Before . . . before all of this . . . Fay-san would have squealed, bounced up and down, hanging off of Kurogane-san, proudly displaying his new watch and going on and on about how wonderful Syaoran-kun and Sakura-chan were. Mokona would have danced around, proclaiming silly things about their little family. Kurogane-san would have grumbled about the expense, the sentimentality, the foolishness, and Fay-san and Mokona's behavior, but he would tuck the watch someplace safe where it could not be damaged. Syaoran-kun would have blushed, and Sakura probably would have too, but the important thing was to make Kurogane-san and Fay-san happy!

And now . . . now everything was ruined. Sakura had heard the lecture that Fay-san never actually intended for her ears. She had heard Kurogane-san and Fay-san fighting in the hall, and Kurogane-san's soft comment. Her new family was broken! Everyone was hurting! And Sakura . . . Sakura would hurt them all even more.

She wept, cradling the little boxes to her as she cried. "H-happy Father's Day, K-kurogane-san . . . F-fay-san. I'm sorry!"

**The End.**


End file.
